The Face that relaunched ... classic covers from January 1986 (left) and October 2003.
Composite: Hymag

After a hiatus of 15 years, the Face, the style magazine known for its striking covers that helped launch the careers of Kate Moss, Alexander McQueen, Juergen Teller and Phoebe Philo, is back. Theface.com is online now, and will be followed by a quarterly magazine in September, with the aim of reclaiming its status as style bible of a generation.

“It feels like a perfect time for the Face to be coming back,” says the editor, Stuart Brumfitt. “In these uncertain times, we want to create a fun, smart, unifying place for style-, culture- and society-loving people to revel in.”

Dan Flower, the magazine’s managing director, agrees about the timing. “When the Face came out the first time [in 1980], there was a lot of political upheaval,” he says. He believes it will appeal to a newly politically aware generation, adding that there are comparisons to be drawn between the 80s and present day.

At its peak, the Face magazine sold 70,000 copies a month. Its covers – featuring the likes of Moss, Bart Simpson, Madonna, McQueen dressed as Joan of Arc, David Beckham or a 13-year-old boy dressed as a gangster – ensured it stood out on the newsstand, and it became a monthly pop-culture talking point during its 24-year run up to 2004.

Brumfitt says: “The covers were so powerful. There’s one cover for everyone out there. It gave you a snapshot of style at that moment in time but more through character and culture and lifestyle.” He is hoping to recapture that sense with the relaunch, which will seek to emulate the arresting covers, witty writing and a mix of content that touched on the A-list as well as pop culture, sport, current affairs and youth subculture.

The rapper Octavian features in the relaunched Face. Photograph: Julian Klincewicz

“I think subcultures exist in unexpected ways,” Brumfitt says. “I just got some pictures in from the Drake concert – and obviously Drake is a huge rap star so it’s not a subculture in the way you’d expect – but kids were pushing interesting looks. I find that quite fascinating.” As for cool, there’s a place for that, too. “The Face had really cool music and fashion, but the true cool was the fact it was so open-minded and curious and intelligent and funny,” he says. “That’s still the coolest thing for me.”

The relaunch has had mixed reactions. The founder, Nick Logan, was supportive, but others have been mystified. Paul Gorman, the author of The Story of the Face, was sceptical in a Creative Review article, in part criticising the relaunch for a lack of the original’s attitude.

The new publication aims to reach 5 million people by the end of the year. Theface.com shares the distinctive red-and-white branding of the original. It launches with an exclusive feature with French-British rapper Octavian. Other features include a conversation between the rapper Ms Banks and her partner, cruiserweight boxer Lawrence Okolie, and an investigative piece about the World Congress of Families, the Christian coalition that held a recent conference in Italy attended by far-right groups.

The rights to the Face brand were bought in 2017 by Wasted Talent, the parent company of Mixmag and Kerrang!. Flower, who worked on the Face’s sister titles Pop and Arena, wants to get the circulation of the magazine to 100,000 – more than Vanity Fair but less than Harper’s Bazaar. Revenue will come from online advertising and brand partnerships; Adidas has already signed up. Flower says there is the desire to work on documentaries with Netflix or Amazon and more: “maybe” T-shirts, phone covers and even college courses.

Flower has hired a creative council who work remotely – the designer Grace Wales Bonner, marketing expert Acyde Odunlami and Skepta’s manager, Grace Ladoja, are included.

The in-house team reflect Flower’s target market. The digital editor, Brooke McCord, 27, has worked at Dazed and i-D. When I visit their east London office on the Monday before launch, she is dressed in a black sweatshirt with a camisole over the top and lots of gold jewellery. Brumfitt, formerly of the i-D channel Amuse, is an amiable 37-year-old who wears a T-shirt with the logo of cult art books publisher Rizzoli. The duo oversee a diverse staff of 15 members – one in a West Ham retro top, another with waist-length braids and high tops. They huddle over laptops and copies of old issues – Eminem in 2002, Sade in 1984 – the pages strewn in highlighter flags.

Brumfitt and McCord know that nostalgia is a double-edged sword – it guarantees interest but makes it hard to start afresh. The solution is to go with the spirit of the original – McCord praises an “ability to tie together counterculture and mainstream culture” – but update it. In the old Face, a feature on war-torn Sarajevo might have shared space with a lo-fi fashion shoot and interview with a young Leonardo DiCaprio. The new one takes this model. “It’s a huge point of difference that a lot of other style magazines don’t have,” says Brumfitt. It’s one that will hopefully help him engage a generation that is increasingly politically engaged.